Last September, Jane’s Addiction’s then-vocalist Perry Farrell attacked Dave Navarro during a concert in Boston. As a result, the band announced that they were going on hiatus and canceled their reunion tour. Now, the band is striking back against Farrell with a lawsuit.
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According to Rolling Stone, Navarro, Eric Avery, and Stephen Perkins have filed a lawsuit against Farrell in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit accuses the former Jane’s Addiction singer of negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, assault, and battery. The complaint states that Farrell’s actions cost the band more than $10 million due to the canceled tour and the scrapping of the album they were planning to record. It would have been the first release with the band’s original lineup since Ritual de lo Habitual from 1990.
More About the Jane’s Addiction Lawsuit
The details of the lawsuit give details about the impact of Farrell’s actions were not as visible as the onstage fight in Boston. For instance, Dave Navarro was receiving $25,000 from a disability insurance policy. However, he canceled those payments to return to work with Jane’s Addiction.
“Had Navarro not terminated the disability payments, and given his condition, Navarro likely would have received the $25,000 payments for several years.” However, that wasn’t all that the guitarist gave up. He also postponed his wedding in Scotland, which cost him $50,000.
Before embarking on the reunion tour, the band set a “majority rules” condition. If a band decision came up, they agreed to vote on it and let he majority lead the way. They did this because Farrell “had an egregious habit” of taking the spotlight off the band and putting it on himself and his wife, Etty Lau Farrell, a dancer.
However, the Farrells’ refusal to observe this rule almost ended the tour on its opening night. Farrell insisted that the band play a video of his wife and other dancers performing in the desert while they were on stage. Navarro, Avery, and Perkins disagreed. “With fans already streaming into the theater, Plaintiffs were in their dressing room trying to figure out how to go on with the show. Etty yelled at Plaintiffs that the band was ‘not a democracy’ when it came to including dancers,” the suit reads. She and Perry tried to leave and end the tour. However, the band’s management and Live Nation representatives convinced the vocalist to stay.
The suit also points to Farrell’s onstage intoxication that inspired him to slur his way through long monologues.
Farrell’s Assault on Navarro Played a Large Role in the Lawsuit
The suit alleges that Perry Farrell attacked Dave Navarro onstage, knowing that he was weak due to a chronic illness. Additionally, the suit alleges that the attack triggered traumatic memories of the night Navarro’s mother was murdered. The suit further alleges that Farrell attacked the Jane’s Addiction guitarist again backstage.
“Plaintiffs were rightfully afraid and uncomfortable to perform with him again,” the suit said of the band’s outlook on Farrell. “It was also abundantly clear that Perry was in no condition to continue the tour on which he had struggled to perform.”
Jane’s Addiction Took Major Financial Losses, Could Lose More
Before the tour, the band released a pair of new singles. Those songs were supposed to be part of a new album. Unfortunately, they won’t be able to record the album after Perry Farrell’s actions on the road. This means that the band may have to repay the advance they received from ADA, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
All of the band’s members would have made $210,000 from the tour. They lost that revenue stream after canceling the tour. Jane’s Addiction also owes nearly a quarter of a million dollars to their manager, business manager, and legal team, according to the suit.
Perry Farrell’s Legal Team Responds
Perry Farrell’s team reached out to American Songwriter to share the following statement from his legal team.
“This is yet another clear example of the group uniting to isolate and bully frontman Perry Farrell. The timing of this baseless lawsuit is no coincidence—it was filed only after they caught wind of legal action coming from our side. It’s a transparent attempt to control the narrative and present themselves as the so-called ‘good guys’—a move that’s both typical and predictable. Just like when they released a defamatory and entirely unfounded statement about Perry’s mental health and unilaterally canceled the remaining tour dates without his input, they’re once again scrambling to get ahead of the truth in a desperate effort to save face.”
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